As is well known, the husk from the Plantago psyllium seeds, contains a high percentage of mucilage which is mainly composed of xylose, arabinose and galacturonic acid. Said husk also contains substantial amounts of rhamose and galactose, and said powdered husk being broadly utilized throughout the world as emollient and laxative, being particularly useful in the treatment of chronic constipation, amoebic and bacillary disentery, and in the treatment of diarrhea due to conditions of irritation in the gastrointestinal tract. It is also well known that the action of said powder is purely mechanical and is due to a large extent to the substantial amount of mucilage contained thereby Also, its utilization in the treatment of febrile conditions as well as in certain diseases of kidneys, bladder and urethra has been contemplated in combination with other products such as anhydrous dextrose, sodium bicarbonate, citric acid and the like.
As for the above mentioned purposes the cores of the Plantago psyllium seeds have no usefulness whatsoever, the workers in this field have endeavored to devise proceses for husking Plantago psyllium seed and isolating the husk, which in the form of a fine powder is used for the above mentioned purposes. The problem faced by the workers in this field of husking the very small seed of Plantago psyllium, have been considerable and up to the present time no one has accomplished a process for the production of Plantago psyllium mucilage (contained in the husk) which may be regarded as efficient and economical.
Applicant has the knowledge that very few processing systems for the Plantago psyllium seed are in existence at the present time, and all of them show very serious drawbacks, inasmuch as they are very primitive, antieconomical and difficult to control systems, and they also require a high number of machines and elements to accomplish the goal of husking the Plantago psyllium seed.
In the above mentioned respect, applicant knows certain systems that utilize stone mills for husking the Plantago psyllium ends, although these systems, due to the friction and rubbing effect, destroy the grain, comminute and disintegrate the same and thus produce excessive amounts of particulate impurities which are of the same size as the particles of the husk which therefore avoids the appropriate further separation or classification thereof and, therefore, the purity of the powdered husk is decreased. Contrary to the above, the desirable effect would be to loosen the husk without breaking the grain, so that the differences in sizes between the grain and the husk fragments may be substantial so as to permit a ready separation thereof. This goal, however, has not been possible with the use of stone mills. In the process which utilizes this type of stone mills, on the other hand, it is mandatory to provide from 7 to 12 grinding steps or progressive milling steps of very low capacities and, therefore, the said processes using this type of mills have resulted in very costly operations and in an excessive energy consumption, with a low capacity.
Hammer mills have also been found for the same above mentioned purpose, but in this particular instance the impact effect of the hammers and the rubbing of the seeds against the screens contained in said mills, also produce the disintegration of the core of the grain and of the whole grain, thus comminuting the same in excess, with the same consequences already discussed in connection with the stone mills, and with the necessity of including an excessive number of grinding steps in order to accomplish an acceptable production.
In other prior art systems grooved roll mills are used, although in this particular instance, as the grooved rolls operate at a differential speed, they rub and fracture the grains in trying to accomplish the husking effect, and the existence of the defects already described in the above described instances cannot be avoided, namely, the comminution of the grains and the production of excessive amounts of small particles of the core of the grain, which contaminate the husk and prevent the separation and the obtention of particles of husk with the desirable purity. In this particular instance, the utilization of an excessive number of grinding steps in order to accomplish acceptable results is also required.
All the prior art processes which are described above, as already mentioned, require at least from 7 up to 12 grinding steps, with the corresponding number of screening steps for separating the husk particles from the grains and grain cores, which render these processes very complex, antieconomical, difficult to control and of intricate maintenance.
In view of the above, a process has long been sought which would result in the obtention of powdered husk of Plantago Psyllium seeds with a high mucilage content, useful for being used in the pharmaceutical industry, which will not require an excessive number of grinding steps and which, however, may produce a Plantago psyllium powdered husk with a very high purity, in order to reduce the production costs of said powdered husk and in order to obtain a product which may be of a purity higher than that which is possible with the systems and processes extant up to the present time as described above. Regardless of the many years during which this research has been made, the above objective has not been accomplished anywhere in the world, whereby the problems extant in this industry for the obtention of a high purity powdered husk of Plantago psyllium seed, with a reasonable efficiency, have remained unsolved up to the present date.